Zuckerberg’s money starts flowing into schools

Three Redwood City schools are getting a $1.06 million check from Mark Zuckerberg‘s Facebook-fueled infusion of $120 million into Bay Area classrooms, one of the first districts to see part of the education mega-pledge.

Mark Zuckerberg

Hoover and Taft elementary schools will get most of the million to upgrade technology, including money to buy iPads and Chromebooks, provide training to teachers on how to incorporate them into lesson plans and to give parents support so they can help their kids use them.

“Technology has unleashed exciting new ways of teaching and learning that we could barely have imagined even a few years ago, but students only benefit if they have access to devices that make digital learning possible,” said Jan Christensen, superintendent of the Redwood City School District, in a statement.

The district’s John Gill Elementary School will also get some of the money to help revitalize it, with the help of Innovate Public Schools, a Mountain View-based, pro-charter nonprofit focused on revamping struggling schools.

Redwood City school officials worked with Startup: Education, created to dole out the $120 million, money Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged in May.

San Francisco and East Palo Alto schools are scheduled to receive funding this year as well.